Alexander Gunzburg warned of the deadly danger of COVID-19 as a “live vaccine”
Photo: Ilya Naimushin / RIA Novosti
The head of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gintsburg, in an interview with TASS, warned of the mortal danger of using coronavirus as a “live vaccine”.
The scientist explained that any circulating strain of coronavirus, including omicron, can become a “live vaccine” if a person has had the disease “on his feet”. However, he stressed, such a “vaccination” can carry various risks, including fatal ones, since the consequences of the disease are unpredictable.
No one can say what the consequences of such a “vaccination” will be, in contrast to the vaccination with Sputnik, the safety of which has long been proven. Because the complications from a live vaccine are different, up to death.
Alexander GintsburgHead of the Gamaleya Center
Omicron as a “live vaccine”
In early December 2021, when the omicron strain of coronavirus was spreading around the world, the virologist of the Russian Academy of Sciences Petr Chumakov called the omicron strain a live vaccine due to its reduced pathogenicity. People who become infected with the new strain will become resistant to disease-causing variants, he said.
Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases of the South Ural State Medical University (SUSMU) Lyudmila Ratnikova agreed with Chumakov. She believes that the coronavirus is exhausting its potential, so the omicron strain may be the last mutation of the virus, after which the pandemic will subside. Ratnikova suggested that after the loss of potential, COVID-19 could turn into a “seasonal” disease that will occur with cold symptoms. The researcher believes that the virus will cease to massively cause severe forms of the disease, the person himself will cope with it.
Later, the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Russia, Melita Vujnovic, expressed the opinion that it could become a “live vaccine” against COVID-19 and would defeat the pandemic. She noted that such a result is possible, but emphasized that it was too early to talk about this, since at that time there were not enough patients with omicron.
At the same time, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the omicron strain is spreading faster than other types of coronavirus. The representative of the organization also confirmed that the virus is dangerous, including for those vaccinated and recovered from COVID-19.
In turn, an immunologist, doctor of medical sciences Vladislav Zhemchugov expressed the opinion that the properties of the new strain indicate that it can displace previous versions of the virus, become a “live vaccine”, so additional restrictive measures should not be introduced. He believes that omicron was the last mutation of COVID-19 before the virus left for another population, as “herd immunity among people has reached such a level that it can no longer reproduce on them.”
It spreads powerfully, creates a very high-quality immunity to all new mutations and has an extremely low lethality, that is, it practically does not kill healthy people. This should be used, but wisely
Vladislav Zhemchugov, Immunologist
Unlike Zhemchugov, immunologist Nikolai Kryuchkov believes that omicron will not become a “live vaccine”, but several times more citizens will suffer from it than from the delta. He agreed that the pathogenicity of the new strain and the risk of hospitalization and admission to intensive care has decreased. However, with a new strain of coronavirus, its infectivity has increased by about 30 percent, so “omicron is not an easy walk,” Kryuchkov concluded. Vladimir Gushchin, head of the laboratory of mechanisms of population variability of pathogenic microorganisms at the Gamaleya Center, is of the same opinion.
Omicron vaccines
After the first data on omicron appeared in the scientific community, they began to talk about the possibility of adapting existing coronavirus vaccines to a new strain, as studies began to show that during the pandemic the protective effect of vaccination decreased, and omicron is able to infect vaccinated people.
In addition, scientists have found that the omicron variant of the coronavirus is resistant to major antibodies. Studies have shown that the antibodies of recovered people practically do not inhibit the omicron variant. Antibodies after two BioNTech-Pfizer vaccinations also showed a significantly reduced efficacy, however, after the third dose, the efficacy is somewhat restored. Heterologous vaccination by Oxford-AstraZeneca and BioNTech-Pfizer is also characterized by increased protection against the omicron strain.
Moderna began testing a special vaccine against the omicron strain in early 2022. At the same time, before clinical testing of the special vaccine, Moderna recommended fighting a new strain of coronavirus infection with the help of the third vaccination with its own drug. Pfizer CEO Albert Burla said a vaccine against the omicron strain of coronavirus would be ready in March. He assured that the drug would be effective not only against the omicron strain, but also against other varieties of coronavirus infection.
As for the Russian Sputnik V, the head of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gintsburg, said that the drug does not need to be modified for the omicron strain. Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), also spoke about the fact that the vaccine demonstrates good neutralization of omicron.
Nevertheless, the Gamaleya Center nevertheless began work on updating Sputnik V, a sample of the new version of the vaccine is already ready, and it is possible to replace the existing version of the drug in two and a half to three months.
In addition, Denis Logunov, Deputy Director for Research at the Gamaleya Center, said that Russia wants to create a polyvalent coronavirus vaccine based on several strains of COVID-19, such as delta and omicron, — scientists at the Gamaleya Center are developing it. He added that the emergence of omicron will inevitably lead to an increase in the incidence of coronavirus.
Omicron in Russia
On January 14, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced that almost 800 cases of omicron infection had been detected in Russia. At the same time, a sharp increase in the incidence of the new strain is observed in Moscow. Golikova explained that the capital region traditionally takes the first blow as a major transport hub.
Denis Logunov, deputy head of the Gamaleya Center, warned that the omicron strain would become the dominant variant of the coronavirus in Russia by the end of January. Epidemiologist, candidate of medical sciences Alexander Vygonailov admitted that the rise in the incidence of COVID-19 in Russia could reach 100 thousand infected per day.
If at the delta at the peak in Russia there were 41,000 infections, then at least a six-figure figure is expected here, 100 thousand, and maybe more
Alexander Vygonyailov, epidemiologist
On January 16, the WHO representative in Russia, Melita Vujnovic, said that the country is still at the peak of the coronavirus epidemic. She noted that although the increase in mortality is much lower with the omicron than with the delta strain, one should not be mistaken about the real trends.
According to the forecast of researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington Medical School (IHME), the peak incidence of the omicron strain of coronavirus may occur in Russia on January 22. According to their forecast, on February 5 it will be obvious according to official statistics. It is noted that at the peak of the fifth wave of COVID-19, statistics based on tests for coronavirus infection performed could rise to 85,700 per day.
On January 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the Cabinet of Ministers two weeks to prepare for a new blow from the coronavirus pandemic. He described the epidemiological situation as very difficult. The Head of State stressed that the country should increase testing for COVID-19 and continue the vaccination campaign.
